When a child is unable to hold his pencil properly and has handwriting like a chicken scrawl, the typical thing we would do is to drill him with more writing exercises to perfect his penmanship for the ABC's. His inability to hold the pencil properly and write nicely is not because he is untidy or something, but an indication that a learning prescription is needed for his fine motor skills. This means that activities such as bead threading, moulding with play dough and sticker pasting, should be introduced as opportunities to develop his fine motor skills. All these will 'strengthen' his fingers and eventually allow him to have more control over his pencil (aka the tripod grasp)... then tah dah, better penmanship (and an increase in self esteem too) :-)

Felt that this applies to our personal lives as well. It gave me a paradigm shift!

Thank God :-)